The Pasadena school year begins in less than two weeks, and in years past, my default setting was to VOLUNTEER FOR ALL THE THINGS at the beginning of the year. But I am now deeply burnt out and adopting my Aunt Claire’s approach to school volunteering.

My Aunt Claire is a busy woman who loves to do things. She has four children, and I went to school with some of them. Aunt Claire was involved. She ran carnivals, room parented, and attended field trips. I assumed she did this every year, relentlessly sacrificing her time in the name of her children’s education.

Wrong!

Aunt Claire volunteered at school every other year. One year, she would run the school carnival. The next, she would not volunteer for anything big. Then she would jump back into the volunteering fold and be a room parent for a year. The next year, she was back on sabbatical. When I learned this, I was amazed for two reasons: (1) she had the audacity to take a year off from volunteering every other year! and (2) being a room mom counted as a major volunteering effort.

I was shocked. I was stunned. I’ve been a room parent for the past five years, and for two of those years, I was a room parent for both kids’ classes. On top of that, I was on the PTA board two years; ran the elementary school book fair once; ran the preschool book fair at least five times; chaperoned field trips; organized art projects; was a referee for AYSO; coached both kids’ soccer teams; was the cookie chair for Pippa’s Girl Scout troop (twice); and last year, promoted myself to troop leader. HOLY SHIT I’M EXHAUSTED JUST WRITING ALL THAT.

I ignored my Aunt Claire’s example for a long time. Until I realized I was overwhelmed, bitter, and burnt out and in dire need of a break. Then I considered her approach and realized, My Aunt Claire is one smart cookie.

I’m embracing my inner Aunt Claire this year and scaling back my volunteer roles. That means no official roles for the PTA. No room parenting. No AYSO commitments. And no book fair!

I will continue my role as Girl Scout leader because if I don’t, the troop dies, and I actually enjoy that work. Also, we have a very low-key troop, so it’s not like I’m organizing constant events and outings and fundraising to take the girls to Europe. We meet monthly and do some crafty shit. Sometimes we attend events organized by our service unit, sometimes not. We didn’t sell cookies last season and it was liberating. The girls are entering 5th grade and then it’s off to middle school, so I suspect this will be the troop’s last year. I’m looking forward to enjoying this one volunteering role.

I will also consider chaperoning a couple of field trips. But I’m not attending any plays! I’ve done that twice and I’m sick of shushing children while watching a mediocre performance.

I miiiiiight even organize a class party if the room parent is not keen on the job, BUT I WILL NOT BE A ROOM MOM.

I might help a bit with fundraising for 5th grade promotion, but I WILL NOT BECOME AN INDENTURED SERVANT HUSTLING TO MAKE MONEY SO THE KIDS CAN GO TO MEDIEVAL SHITTY TIMES.

My intention for the 2023-24 school year is to do less volunteering, especially volunteering that requires “organizing and galvanizing,” and to use my extra time to heal from the stress of doing too much for too long. It’s time to release my inner Aunt Claire and chill the eff out.

My July reading started strong with A Court of Wings and Ruin, the third and final installment of the Thorns and Roses fantasy series. I devoured most of this tome while on vacation in Nebraska. If you like to read about hot fairies going on satisfying, world-saving adventures, then I highly recommend the entire series.

I still read aloud to my ten-year-old Pippa, and I intend to keep reading to her for as long as she allows it. We are currently working our way through the Hunger Games series and finished Mockingjay, the third book in the original trilogy, when we got home from our Nebraska trip. So far, Pippa has loved the series and would let me read to her all night if my voice could handle it, She loved the ending of Mockingjay so much, she reread the final chapter the next night. We are currently deep into the prequel.

I listened to the audiobook for Dial A for Aunties by Jesse Q. Sutanto. Earlier in 2023, I listened to the audiobook for Sutanto’s more recent novel, Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers, which was utterly delightful. Dial A for Aunties was good, but I didn’t love it as much as Vera Wong. Still, I’d recommend it if you enjoy madcap antics involving a corpse at a wedding on an island.

Then I listened to the audiobook for It Ends With Us by Colleen Hoover, and I’m mad at that book because it bills itself as a love triangle but is actually a disturbing story about domestic violence. This book gave me a lot to think about regarding domestic violence, but the book blurb duped me. I don’t expect a trigger warning for every difficult issue tackled by a novel, but 2023 has been kicking my ass and I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth for this book. Still, I finished it, so there’s that.

But seriously, look at the cover for the audiobook! It looks like a cute romantic story! Now that I’ve read the book, I see that the flowers are shattered BUT IT’S A MISLEADING PINK COVER THAT SCREAMS CUTE.

Then I read Network Effect, the fifth book in the Murderbot Diaries, and I can’t say enough good things about that series. It’s about a sarcastic robot who has some cloned human anatomy and there’s tons of satisfying adventure in a well thought out world. I hope this series is turned into a tv show, and I hope Martha Wells keeps writing the Murderbot Diaries until her dying breath, because I can’t get enough. I have the sixth book on deck and am saving it for when I really need something good.

My friend Sarah picked My Friend Anna: The True Story of a Fake Heiress for our book club’s July meeting, and this book prompted a fantastic discussion. I highly recommend this memoir for book clubs. It’s like Sex and the City, except Carrie is friends with a con artist, and the audiobook is read by the author.

Finally, because I needed some brain candy, I read Assailants, Asphalt & Alibis, the eighth installment in the Camper and Criminals murder mystery series by Tonya Kappas. I happened upon this cozy mystery series last December when I listened to the audiobook for one of the Christmas installments. Since then, I’ve gone back and devoured the first eight audiobooks and I already have the ninth teed up for August. The main character, Mae West, owns an RV camp in a small town in Kentucky that she inherited from her late husband, and I’m here for all of Mae’s wry observations. So far, there are thirty-two books in this series, so I won’t be running out of cozy mysteries any time soon.